Camp Alamo

Camp Alamo is the home of the Training Assistance Group (TAG) and it's where I will live for the duration of my tour. We are adjacent to the Kabul Military Training Center (KMTC). We are giving "training assistance" to the staff at KMTC, which for lack of a better comparison, is like Afghanistan's West Point. This is where officers and NCOs are trained. Almost every level has an American, Canadian, British, Romanian and (formerly) French advisor.

My job is to mentor the chief legal officer and help him implement military justice. Many judical concepts are brand new to the Afghans, so it's a challenging job.

Note the weapons clearing barrels. You must drop your magazine and clear your weapon every time you enter to clear all live rounds. Failure to do this can lead to a negligent discharge (ND) and land you in hot water. We do keep weapons on us 24/7. I imagine that it will be strange when I get home not to have a weapon strapped to my leg all of the time.

You can often see the Afghan soldiers drilling. They are interesting to watch, because their marching technique is just like the Soviet style, with a goose step and a lot of stomping. You can see the NCO leading them on the left.

The Afghans must burn anything they can get to keep warm. Unfortunately this sometimes includes automobile and truck tires which creates a heavy haze.

Here is a picture of my bunk now. Not much different from the other bunks you've seen. Fortunately the top one isn't taken. My back is against the wall as I'm taking this pic so you can get a feel of how tight the space is. As I said yesterday, I'm still living out of the duffels. As my brother Michael would say, I'm living "prison style" with no sheets. I actually prefer the sleeping bags that we were issued. I can't complain. We have soldiers in the field living outside in zero degrees on the front lines.

Finally, you can see my office. I had the sign professionally made. Can you smell the lead based paint? I can't either. My sense of smell has been obliterated by it. Note the ever present weapon and body armor. Today I was sitting at my desk while the Navy Seabees were working on renovations upstairs. They were banging around so hard that a florescent light fell out of the ceiling onto my head!! If you've ever busted a florescent light you know what that's like! I thought I'd been shot. I called it a day after that.

See you tomorrow. Good night (or day I guess on your side of the world).